On This Day: 2009

Wolves take on Huddersfield Town in a vital nPower Championship game today, and if Dean Saunders' side need inspiration, they should look no further than this day four years ago.

April 13 2009 will go down as one of the most memorable days in Wolves' recent history, as they edged a thrilling game at Derby County's Pride Park and moved to the verge of promotion to the Premier League.

Going into the Easter Monday clash, Wolves headed the division with four games to go, and were coming off the back of a routine 3-0 win at home to Southampton on Good Friday.

With a full programme of Championship fixtures, the day was to prove a pivotal - if nervy - point in the race for promotion.

Wolves struck early on at Pride Park, when Andy Keogh executed a difficult volley to perfection to give Mick McCarthy's men a seventh-minute advantage.

However, they were to be pegged back on the half hour by Przemyslaw Kazmierczak's stunning free-kick, and worse was to follow, as Mile Sterjowski put the home side 2-1 up early in the second period.

Then, with three minutes remaining, came the moment that many Wolves fans will point to as the one at which they truly started to believe that Premier League football was heading back to Molineux.

On-loan striker Marlon Harewood picked the ball up on the right wing, drove forward and sent in a low cross which Keogh met to nod Wolves back in front.

The scenes behind the goal were jubilant, as a shirtless Keogh celebrated his goal with his team-mates right in front of the travelling support.

The mood in the away end was to get even better after the final whistle had blown, as the giant scoreboard at the opposite end of Pride Park flashed up the results from elsewhere in the Championship.

With Birmingham City held at home by Plymouth, Sheffield United's game against Nottingham Forest ending goalless and Reading being pegged back after leading 2-0 at Blackpool, the realisation dawned that Wolves needed just one more win to seal a return to the top flight.

It was a task they completed at the first opportunity, with a 1-0 win at home to QPR the following week.